by Natalie Ann
“That’s not true,” Ruby said. “Josh had never been married or in a serious relationship. I hadn’t been either until we met each other. Sometimes you have to wait for that perfect person.”
“You guys are still younger than me,” Evan said. “Doesn’t count. And Josh is a nice guy.”
“And we know Evan isn’t,” Whitney said.
Evan just wanted to mind his own business and do his job. Nice wasn’t a word many said about him.
Yep, he could put on a smile for a buyer and normally did, but then when he turned his back the smile dropped faster than a cookie in the jar after being caught red-handed as a kid sneaking one before dinner.
“I can be nice,” Evan said, smiling. “When I want to. I don’t always like to play nice. Or as my mother likes to say, someone had to be Oscar in the family.
He was often referred to as Oscar the Grouch when he woke up as a kid. It took him a few hours to get going and warmed up to talk to people and then by the end of the day he was back to being grouchy.
Why talk to people when they didn’t have much to say that he was interested in?
As an adult he knew it was caffeine that he needed. Get a couple of cups of coffee in him and he was good to go and willing to suck it up for the day.
“Kaelyn was always the happy one,” Whitney told Ruby. “Christian, the quiet calm one.”
“Again, someone has to be,” Evan said. “And how are you feeling?” he asked Ruby. He’d heard last week she was several months pregnant.
“See?” Ruby said. “That was nice of you to ask and I’m feeling great. We’ll find out the sex of the baby in a few weeks. Never thought I’d be a mother. Heck, I never thought I’d even get married.”
“Can you imagine Evan as a father?” Whitney asked, laughing. “If he had a daughter, he’d probably follow behind her until she was thirty before anyone of the opposite sex could get close.”
“Damn straight,” he said. “Just like I tried to do with Kaelyn.”
“Didn’t work, did it?” Ruby said. “Though your sister seems happy enough.”
“It’s a good thing or Harris would have to answer to me.”
Whitney rolled her eyes. “Not only is Kaelyn not fazed by you but Harris isn’t intimidated and you know it.”
It was true. His brother-in-law was bigger than anyone else in the family and treated his wife and daughter like gold. The daughter that was conceived before they were married!
“Well, she’s as independent as you,” Evan said. “And you too, Ruby.” He knew enough when to kiss ass.
“Now you’re sucking up,” Whitney said. “Was there something you wanted from me or can I go back to work with Ruby?”
“Since I’m in your office, there is,” he said. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“It’s fine,” Ruby said. “I always enjoy visiting and making money. Just going over two potential new builds for you guys.”
“That’s what we like,” Evan said. “When it’s set to go, let Christian know.”
His brother was one of the engineers for Butler Construction. They had three employed now because they were so busy, but Christian dealt with all the new builds, another engineer with renovation projects and repairs that might need to be done, and a third with commercial properties. In the past few years it’d gotten to be too much for Christian to do it all.
“We know the routine,” Whitney said. “Stop being so bossy all the time.”
“I’m not bossy,” he said. “I’m just right. I’m only doing my job.”
“Whatever,” Whitney said. “Get out of here and let me do my job after you tell me what it is you need.”
“I’m looking to find out when the shipment of cabinets is coming in for the house on Glendale.”
Whitney dealt with everything in the office from ordering supplies to dealing with vendors and clients once the paperwork had been signed on a new build.
Ryan oversaw a good portion of the construction crews on site for multiple projects but liked to get his hands dirty in the mix and work along with them. He was more a day-to-day manager.
Evan oversaw everything from a bigger picture. He scheduled the workload, he made sure everything was on track to get done, and when to shift crews around on other projects, along with what timelines to give when projects came in.
“Just give me a second. I know they were on backorder, but I thought they were due tomorrow.” He stood there while Whitney started to type into her computer and then pulled it up. “Yep. Tomorrow it is.” She clicked a few more buttons. “They are en route too. So at least we know they were shipped.”
“Better than still being in the warehouse. Okay, that’s one less headache I’ve got to deal with and can go tell Ryan to continue as planned.”
He walked out of Whitney’s office and headed back to his truck to get on with his day, not sure why he was in such a hurry. It’s not like he had anything planned after work tonight or any other night.
He talked about not changing his ways and didn’t plan on it, but damn, there were times when it sure was lonely.
2
Slow Life Down
“You’re in the car, aren’t you?”
“It’s where I normally am,” Parker said to her older brother, Marcus. When she wasn’t on the road, she was in offices just like his, sometimes hospitals, other times long term facilities. It depended on who she was meeting and what she was trying to sell.
She loved her job as a pharmaceutical rep, but she was more a road warrior than anything. At least she was assigned a new territory that would mean less flying than she’d been doing, which was why she felt like it was time to finally buy her own home.
“I’m not sure how you can handle that,” Marcus said. “Long hours and no life.”
She started to laugh. “Pot calling the kettle. How many hours have you worked this week so far?”
Her brother was a plastic surgeon working at a private practice. He’d started there not that long ago after more years of schooling and training than she could imagine. She didn’t even want to think of the debt he had on top of it.
Her other brother, Jeremy, was a cardiologist for St. Peter’s. He’d just started working too. Though Marcus was two years older than Jeremy, they’d both been in school for what seemed like forever, with Marcus needing more fellowships in the end.
Here she was eight years younger than Marcus and six younger than Jeremy and she had her own house and most likely a lot more money in the bank than them.
Of course their earning potential would blow her out of the water like a hippo jumping into a kiddie pool, but she’d had years to put money away and make investments while they went further in debt to reach their dreams.
She had dreams and goals too, but she was doing them her way.
“What day is it?” Marcus asked.
“Thursday,” she said.
“Then probably over fifty at this point. The day is still young.”
She laughed. She’d put in a few twelve-hour days herself since she flew back on Monday around eleven from where she’d been getting a training that had lasted all weekend. Then started bright and early Tuesday morning on the road at five, getting home after six if she was lucky.
It was bad enough she’d closed on her house last week and had barely spent any time in it. One day before she had to fly out of town. Each night she was still trying to unpack and put things away, but progress was slow and she liked things just right.
“It’s after five now. Isn’t your office closed?” she asked.
“It is, but I’ve got notes to finish up. I’ll be a few more hours. Just figured I’d call my favorite sister and see how she’s doing and find out when I can come visit this new house of yours.”
“Anytime this weekend I should be around,” she said. She paused when her phone beeped where it was affixed to the holder on the dashboard of the company car. That was at least one more perk too. She wasn’t putting so many miles on her own car by getting this
territory. “Sorry. I saw a text pop up, but it was a package being delivered to the house.”
“You shouldn’t be texting while you’re driving.”
“I’m not,” she said. “My phone is mounted and I can glance over and see it and call someone if I need to. But you called me, so don’t lecture me about being on my phone.”
“We get enough lecturing at home. Heaven forbid I turn into Mom.”
She snorted. Their entire lives they’d been lectured about what they should do, how they should look, who they should date, their careers and oh yeah—earning potential. The more you make, the more successful you are, the better chance you have of getting your pick of someone in life.
Parker always thought that was antiquated, but hey, it worked for her mom. Her father was an executive at GE and they’d moved around a lot in their lives while he changed positions. For the past fifteen years they’d been in Latham though. Her brothers were in college, so it was just her and her younger sister, Erin, at the time they got uprooted.
Erin hadn’t handled it well. She didn’t handle a lot of things well.
And Parker had to take her mind off her younger sister that was no longer with her. Too many negative thoughts that had no place being in her head anymore.
“Please. One of her is enough. It’s not like she worked much in her life.”
“She was Dad’s secretary,” Marcus said. “How many times have we heard that? At least be thankful she didn’t tell you girls the way to land a man was to look good.”
“Hey,” she said. “I always look good and you know it. You won’t be doing any work on me anytime soon.”
She’d heard plenty that was why she got the sales she did. That her hot body and perfect features with her playful flirty personality sold her products. Like she was using sex or something.
Yeah, she’d heard that too and put all those jealous bitches in their place. Jealousy was all it was.
She was good at her job, but she wouldn’t sell herself to make a buck, and any person who thought that was written off from her life.
Competitive and confident? Yep, she’d always been those things.
But two months after she returned from Survivor, she and her family’s world was turned upside down and they all got a reality check of what was important.
Being on top wasn’t in her mind much anymore. Not in her brothers’ minds either, but their mother, she still held things over their heads to maintain certain paths in life like the tall bully snatching your lunch and dangling it out of reach.
Whatever. She had her life and she was living it her way. Her brothers and she were on the same page at least.
“Is anyone giving you a hard time?” Marcus asked. “I might not have been around much when you were in high school, but I am now.”
“Why did you come back here?” she asked. They’d moved around so much. They’d lived in four other states, her brothers graduating high school in Chicago. Marcus even went to Northwestern and loved it. But then moved onto to Columbia. He’d always said he’d return to Chicago, so she was shocked when he accepted a job here.
“You guys are here. Things change, you know,” he said.
“Yeah. I do.”
“It’s better to be around family,” he said quietly.
“Agreed. Except when they bug you for no reason.”
“I’m not bugging you for no reason. I want to see your house,” he said, laughing.
“And you probably want me to cook you dinner while I’m at it?”
“I haven’t had a home-cooked meal in a good long time. I’d rather not go to Mom’s for it.”
“I don’t blame you,” she said. “I’ve heard enough about it being a waste to buy this house when I was so young and could change jobs again.”
“She doesn’t get that we aren’t like her. She was fine to pick up and move, but I’m not really. I don’t think Jeremy is either.”
“No.” She was stunned Jeremy came back here and got a job too, but she suspected it was the same feeling Marcus had. Even Erin when she was alive hated to always move. “I’m on the road enough to relieve my itchy feet.”
“Mom can’t accept we won’t think like she does. I’m ready to just slow life down.”
“Now I know you’re punch drunk on lack of sleep,” she said. “There is no slowing life down for you. It’s just getting started with you working and having to pay down all those student loans.”
“I meant having a place to put my head down at night and knowing it’s mine and someone isn’t going to take it away,” he said.
“So you hated it as much as us? Moving so often?”
“Yeah,” he said. “The last one didn’t affect Jeremy and me like you and Erin. Was it so bad?”
“I didn’t think so,” she said. “Other than I was starting high school. She was starting middle school, so she would have been meeting new kids anyway. It is what it is. We can’t go back. Living around here growing up was better than living in Chicago. The crime is less, the lifestyle is slower but there is still plenty to do. Even the snow was about the same.”
“The wind was less,” he said.
“Thank God. Hey, I just pulled into the driveway now. You need to get some work done and I’m going for a nice long run.”
“What are you going to do when the snow falls? Get a gym membership since you don’t have a gym at your disposal like you did in your apartment building?”
“That’s what a treadmill is for. And maybe one of my brothers can put it together for me too,” she said, laughing.
“I thought Little Miss Independent could do it all,” he said.
“I can, but who says I have to when I’ve got you and Jeremy in my life?” She was joking because she had no intention of asking them to do it.
“That’s what older brothers do,” he said. “We watch out for you guys.”
His voice had dropped again. “Don’t go there, Marcus. No one is to blame even if we all want to blame ourselves. Mom is the one who started Erin on that journey. I told her from day one what that group was about and she didn’t believe me. She said it’d do Erin good and build her confidence.”
“I don’t want to talk about it. I’m glad the organization was brought down and everyone is in jail for a long time.”
She parked her boring company SUV in the garage next to her sporty Mercedes and grabbed her briefcase to get out, her heels clicking on the concrete floor.
Once she was inside, she stood there and looked around at what was hers. It wasn’t a large house. Not like some of them in Paradise Place, but it was hers.
Three bedrooms, two full baths and two half baths, a nice large kitchen that opened to a dining room and family room. There was an office in the front for her and a finished basement that had another living room, half bath, and what she’d use as an exercise room for her treadmill—when she got it—and some weights. The rest was storage and it all worked for her.
She slid her shoes off and picked them up, walked to the front of the house and put her briefcase in her office for now. After her run she’d probably get some more work done, but for now she needed to stretch her legs and check out the area a bit more and get a feel for the development the realtor told her was one of the most sought after.
She supposed she was lucky that Ruby Turner called her the day this went on the market, and she fell in love, making a full price offer on the spot.
Now it was time to slow down a little like Marcus said.
Then she laughed knowing she could say it, but it’d never happen. She was just too driven.
3
Speaking Their Minds
Evan was running his hand over his face as he drove home to get something out of the garage. That was twice now he had to run home during the day, but at this point, most people were finished with work.
Not him. This time of year, they worked a lot until it was dark. Or did if they were behind on a build, which they were due to shipments and supplies being held up.
Since he was driving around looking at different jobs they were working on in the development, it was easy enough to swing by his place and see what it was about.
What he saw was a package for Parker Reed that wasn’t his address but the house across the street. It happened from time to time but not often.
He’d run it across the street and put in on the new owner’s front porch and figured the dude was buying stuff for his house since it was a big box and looked to be from a home goods store.
So far the new neighbors were perfect in his eyes. He hadn’t seen or heard a word from them. Even the past several days there’d been one light on in the house in the office when he’d walk by the front of his house and then it’d be dark again. After the third day he started to suspect they might not be home and it was a security light.
Not that he cared because the less he knew about his neighbors the better in his eyes. Unless it was someone he could grab a beer with now and again and talk about sports.
Nah, he could get that with his family if he wanted it enough. Most times he had his fill of interaction at work and wanted his lone beer and warmed-up dinner.
He was turning the corner and saw the figure of a hot chick running at a steady pace. She had on teal bottoms plastered to her body and stopping at her calves, a teal and white tank top fitted as tightly with sweat stains on the back. This was a woman who was serious about running, not someone that was going out for a brisk walk.
Wireless earbuds were in her ears and he slowed down to pass her—being courteous—and of course had to check out the front of her.
Her brown ponytail was swinging around her back, her arms pumping, her leg muscles flexing. She turned her head and looked at him, he nodded and she did the same, then he sped up more so it didn’t look like he was ogling her.